Clearing the Haze: Understanding and Treating Brain Fog

How Does Brain Fog Develop And How Can We Treat It?

Brain fog can make simple tasks feel uphill, even when your test results look “normal.” We go straight at the gap between how your brain performs on paper and how it feels in real life, unpacking the real drivers of fog—sleep disruption, hormonal changes, inflammation, metabolic issues, chemo brain, long COVID, and chronic stress—and what actually helps. With Dr. Heather Putney’s clinical lens, we connect everyday symptoms like slower thinking and mental fatigue to the underlying network patterns that shape speed, attention, and focus.

We explore why deep sleep is the brain’s rinse cycle and how late caffeine, screens, sleep apnea, and restless legs push you into a wired-but-tired state. You’ll hear how we triage sleep first with smart hygiene and referrals for studies, then layer in targeted neurotherapy to nudge the brain toward healthier rhythms. We break down chemo brain in plain language: stiffer resting-state activity, sluggish default mode network responses, and oxidative stress. Then we show how photobiomodulation increases ATP, improves blood flow, reduces inflammation, and supports neurogenesis, making cognition feel lighter and quicker.

Hormones get real attention too—from pregnancy and postpartum shifts to perimenopause and menopause. Estrogen supports brain energy and memory regions, so its swings can dull recall and speed. We talk about coordinating with your doctors, checking thyroid and other metabolic markers, and using neuromodulation to send energy where it’s needed most. Finally, we answer a big question: does how long you’ve had brain fog determine recovery time? Not necessarily. Brain energy and responsiveness set the pace, and with the right inputs, even long-standing fog can lift.

If you’re ready to feel clear, focused, and energized again, follow the show for more brain-forward tools, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find us. Your brain is built to power you forward—let’s help it do its job.

To learn more about Transformative Neurotherapy visit:
https://www.TransformativeNeurotherapy.org
Transformative Neurotherapy
570 Lincoln Ave.
Bellevue, PA 15202
412-204-7397

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome And Purpose
• 0:58 Defining Brain Fog And Causes
• 3:10 Symptoms Look Similar, Roots Differ
• 4:21 Sleep, Screening, And Sleep Hygiene
• 6:11 Chemo Brain Mechanics And Relief
• 9:14 Hormones, Pregnancy, And Menopause
• 12:40 Thyroid And Metabolic Checkpoints
• 13:28 Does Duration Affect Recovery
• 14:44 Closing And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with your host, Dr. Heather Putney, founder and executive director of Transformative Neurotherapy. This is the place where healing happens faster. Because let's face it, your brain doesn't come with an owner's manual until now. Here we take a holistic approach to brain health, bringing together science, mind-body harmony, and the tools you need to optimize your well-being. Whether you're a high performer, executive, athlete, longevity hacker, or just someone tired of your brain working against you, Dr. Putney is here to help you unlock your full potential. From brain fog to chronic stress, we're covering it all. So you can finally experience brain health, mind harmony, and total well-being. Ready to get on stock? Let's get started.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Feeling mentally cloudy, let's explore why brain fog happens and how to clear it up. Welcome everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer in the studio with Dr. Heather Putney, the founder and executive director of transformative neurotherapy. Dr. Heather, again, it's a pleasure to be with you. Thank you. Same here. Thank you. So this next topic resonates with so many of our listeners. Let's talk about something we've all experienced at one point or another. How does brain fog develop and how can we treat it, Dr. Heather?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

It's an excellent question. And I think, like you said, this resonates with so many people. Whether you have your bell rung, you know, from a sports injury and you just things weren't working quite so well afterwards, whether it's part of the aging process, you know, or just you just feel like just not as quick as I used to be. Um, whether you've had children and experienced pregnancy brain, or you've gone through chemotherapy, we see a lot of chemo brain, long COVID, fibromyalgia. There's just a whole host of different kinds of causes for brain fog. And but there's, you know, so there's there's lots of ways that we experience it, but it can kind of there's it can show up differently in the brain. There's not like one single thing that's kind of like, oh, this is brain fog. You know, there's a lot of different reasons why we might experience brain fog. And it kind of depends on, you know, what underlies the rat the reason why we are experiencing brain fog. So essentially it's it can show up as like a mix of like slower brain activity, so the brain isn't functioning as fast as it was, or it can be kind of less efficient communication between different systems or networks of the brain. Sometimes it's too much fast activity, so the brain's kind of like hyper-roused and like, you know, uh just in super speed and and kind of can't keep up. It could be some inflammation issues, or like I said, sometimes it's it can also be impacted by hormones, infections, or even stress.

Symptoms Look Similar, Roots Differ

SPEAKER_02 3:00

And then what do you encounter the most in your practice as you've seen their causes of brain fog when these patients walk in? Or is it just like the full range of what you just said?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

It really is the full range of what I said. You know, the clients are coming in and there's just there can just be a multitude of reasons why they feel that way. What I will say is that the symptoms look simple look similar. So it tends to be slower thinking, trouble focusing, feeling foggy, getting mentally tired easily, um, feeling like it just takes so much more energy to do basic, you know, cognitive tasks than they used to take. So the symptoms look the same, but this the the reasons why they're struggling it ends up being different. So then the you know, the solution also looks a little different, depending on, you know, what the actual core issue is that's creating the fog.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

And then if they have like one of these underlying issues that you mentioned, and then you combine that with the stress or the fatigue that accompanies that, I mean, how much harder is it to treat? Or does that is that just kind of go with the territory that something's gonna accompany this condition they already have that's causing a lot of brain fog, stress, lack of sleep, um, you know, uh just frustration over having the brain fog, which leads to more brain fog.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah, it just kind of goes, it can go hand in hand, you know, like like I said, sleep, hormone issues can create a lot of problems with sleep as well. And if you're and when we get into those deeper levels of sleep, that's when the brain actually like rinses and cleanses itself and kind of restores itself. So if we're if if there's something that's disrupting our sleep, then it will create you some brain fog. And so we kind of, like I said, want to look at like what is the what is the underlying factor that's getting that's getting in the way. You know, definitely poor sleep is one of them. And like I said, if you have sleep apnea or some of those things, or those are other things that like if we see some issues, we actually refer out quite a bit for people to go do sleep studies because we want to, you know, we can see sleep issues in the brain where they're in an unable to kind of stay alert and awake in like the 10, 20 minutes we're asking just to do these basic tasks. And so that's when we, you know, we frequently refer out. We want to rule out sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, any other like medical condition that may be impairing their sleep. So because we could do things with the brain that help people sleep, but if there's a medical condition, we're not gonna fix that with neuro, you know. So that is one of those first line things that we're like, you know, coordinating with other people to kind of rule in or rule out. And then, you know, they need to do that work. We talk a lot about sleep hygiene with clients. Like, what are you doing to help improve your sleep? You know, are you on screens right before you go to bed? Um, you know, are you drinking caffeine, you know, after three or four o'clock? Because caffeine takes 12 hours to get out of the system. You know, the half-life is six hours. So if you're drinking caffeine too late in the day, you could just be messing up your sleep or the quality of sleep that you experience. And and that rest to restore peace is super important.

Chemo Brain Mechanics And Relief

SPEAKER_02 6:06

So you know, we talked about this too before, um, chemo fog. Can you talk about that more and how neurotherapy helps restore mental clarity after, you know, experiencing something like that?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Yes. Uh, this is this is actually, you know, something that can uh a condition that people will come into the office frequently and they'll they'll be coming in for brain fog, feeling, you know, feeling cloudy or struggling, and then we ask the history of what's going on or what happened and when did it come on, and then we'll find out that, you know, people may have had, you know, cancer and they've gone through chemotherapy. And so then we're like, okay, so we can kind of see, you know, have a sense of what's going on. So some of the classic symptoms that we see with chemotherapy or brain uh or chemobrain is you know, difficulty with memory, attention, you know, mental speed after the uh, you know, after the treatment, their thinking feels slower, fuzzier, um, and and they just feel and the effort is more tiring, even though they may have gone through basic testing and it looks pretty big, it looks like pretty normal, their cognitive testing, their experience of doing the things is much more challenging than they did before. And, you know, what they're finding is that in, you know, for clients post-chemotherapy is that the brain's resting activity becomes less flexible and efficient. So it can't like respond as it, you know, doesn't pivot so quickly, right? It can't respond so quickly to the cues and and and whatnot. And that, you know, some of the patterns in networks, especially the default mode network, you know, are you know, aren't responding as as quickly and and they're not communicating in the ways that they need to, that they that they need to be. So this kind of network breakdown and and communication and and it can happen in certain areas, especially in areas of control focus and thinking and so forth. And so there's this like difficulty communicating and responding as well as they used to. And some of the hypotheses as to why this happens is that the chemotherapy, you know, can affect the the brain cells and the support cells. There's increased inflammation and oxidative stress, it reduces neuron growth in the brain, it distorts some of the hormones and the stress system. So when then all of these things taken together, it weakens the communication networks that handle memory and attention. But what's so cool is all those things that I just mentioned inflammation, oxidative stress, reduced neuron growth and so forth are all the things that we've talked about over and over in our 20 episodes that neurotherapy does, you know. So we increase energy in the brain with the LED light therapy. It increases ATP and energy directly at the cellular level. You know, we're increasing blood flow, which improves neurogenesis, oxidative stress, the LEDs, the LED lights also help reduce inflammation. So a lot of these, you know, symptoms of this actually blends perfectly for neurotherapy treatment and improvements.

Hormones, Pregnancy, And Menopause

SPEAKER_02 8:59

And I have a question for you that certainly resonates with me and a lot of my friends. You know, we're we're mothers, we have experienced pregnancy, all the things that you mentioned. I'm at an age where a brain fog is certainly an issue for me, more so than it ever has been. Um, you know, how do you help people in like my group? Because we walk in and you know, it sounds like you could provide a life-saving, you know, solution for what's happening now because there's so many things to do, so many things to organize and get done, and you know, being a caregiver, working, all that stuff. So, you know, how does neurotherapy help um how does it help possibly people in my category and then um your category, you know, and uh how quickly can we possibly notice changes, depending, of course, on other circumstances we have going on, you know, with our health and our lifestyle.

Thyroid And Metabolic Checkpoints

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah. So let me talk a little bit about hormones because hormones impact our brain a ton. I mean, we even know just being females, and it's certain certain cycles in our, you know, you know, certain days of the month or certain times in our cycles. We may even just feel a little bit more foggy at certain times, right? But then we also have some big milestones, pregnancy. So you got mom brain, you know, what's happening is the estrogen and progesterone levels rise dramatically and sleep and stress patterns change a lot, and they can create like real, real true drops and memory, mental speed, executive functioning, and things like that. And it, you know, also can kind of those changes can kind of create like a lower mental reserve, you know. So the brain fog happens even more as someone's tired and stressed, you know. And so you tend to see, like I said, with pregnancy, lots of disruptions with the the sleep-wake cycles, and you see less of the slow wave activity that's that rest and restored, we create delta when we're sleeping. We have less of that. We've got more of these fast wave activity in the brain, which kind of keeps the brain a little bit more alert so as to able to kind of like, you know, get get down into that rest and restore. And so, you know, that that's one thing that we see with that, that mom brain, you know, or the pregnancy brain. And, you know, what's what's great is we, you know, we've definitely treated many women that are they're pregnant and they wanted to get off their meds, you know, while they are um while they're going through, you know, their pregnancies. I they're sc they're scared of that. And and, you know, we work with their doctors, but they can, you know, frequently like reduce or try to go off meds and and then the brain balancing work that we do can can really like help them with their symptoms that they were on the medications for before, so that they can kind of be more balanced in pregnancy. So it's really, it's really impressive to see what that can do to help you get through that that state, that, that season of really fluctuating hormones, you know. But then that leads us to another season of hormone change, right? You've got that perimenopause, menopause stage, right? And so you're starting to have some changes in estrogen levels. And one thing that estrogen does for the brain is that it is that it supports brain energy and it protects some of the memory areas. And so when when estrogen levels drop, you you you can see a notice, you know, you can notice an impact in in some of those areas. And so, you know, with the neurotherapy and neuromodulation, we can, you know, like I said, kind of send more energy to that area of the brain to kind of help perk it up that maybe isn't getting there so naturally because of those loss of of you know hormones, you know, which can kind of like help with some of those things. Another thing we have to rule out though, like I said, we're always working with you know doctors, functional medicine. When we're seeing brain fog, there's a couple other things we have to look for. And I've mentioned metabolic issues before, but thyroid. If if they're you know experiencing some of this like brain fog, low energy, if the thyroid is off, then people will feel feel what feels like brain fog, you know. So tired, slowed down. So, like I said, we can, you know, we'll do some of these things that we'll but we'll also be like, okay, we need to make, you know, have you do some testing. Let's just make sure that your thyroid's in a good place. Because it might be that you need to correct that with medicine. And the neurotherapy really isn't what the core issue is here, but you need to make sure that your thyroid is balanced because it's going to show up like brain fog, but the course source is something different, you know?

Does Duration Affect Recovery

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yeah, that's a great point. And there was another question I had for you, Dr. Heather. And I think it we could apply it to quite a few other episodes too. And does it matter how long somebody has suffered with a condition or something like brain fog in relation to how long it takes to treat them with neurotherapy? Like if they've been dealing with something for years, does that mean it takes longer to treat it? Or does that not necessarily make a difference?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

It doesn't necessarily make a difference. It really depends on, and I've mentioned this again, like, does the brain have good energy? Can it, because if the brain has good energy, then we can, we can, it has basically the fuel it needs to make the changes that we want it to do. So it has the ability to do it. If you've got brains that are a little bit more compromised, that are lower energy, lower voltage, those brains can get there, but they're going to get there slower than someone that's got excellent energy, but they just don't know where to go. Like their brain just doesn't know what to do, and you just give it a little coaxing. It's like, okay, cool. And it has the resources it needs and it and it like follows and it shifts quickly versus other some people that maybe have more metabolic issues and maybe less resources, energy. It just takes longer to get there. So it's not necessarily how long it's been there, it it just depends on you know some of these other other factors.

Closing And Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Well, thank you again, Dr. Heather. This conversation really shows that clarity and focus are possible when we understand the brain and brain fog. So thank you again, Dr. Heather.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

You've been listening to the Transformative Neurotherapy Podcast with Dr. Heather Putney. Remember, your brain isn't supposed to hold you back, it's supposed to power you forward. So stop letting it crash your party and start letting it do its job. If you're ready to optimize brain health, sharpen your focus, and age like a fine wine, schedule your free consultation today at Transformative Neurotherapy.org. Or call us at 412-204-7397. Because here, healing happens faster. See you next time!